French Prime Minister says no survivors in crash

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says a helicopter has managed to land near where a passenger plane carrying 150 people crashed in the Alps, and has found there were no survivors.

The weather in the area deteriorated Tuesday afternoon, with a chilly rain falling.

Gilbert Sauvan, of the local council, told Les Echos newspaper, "The plane is disintegrated."

"The largest debris is the size of a car," he added.

The Germanwings Airbus 320 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, Germany, came down in the mountains on Tuesday morning after an eight-minute descent from its cruising height. Officials said they are still establishing whether there was a distress call.

The owner of a French Alpine camping ground says he heard a series of loud noises in the air before a Germanwings passenger plane carrying 150 people crashed to the ground.

Pierre Polizzi told The Associated Press the noise began at 11:30 a.m.

"There are often fighter jets flying over, so I thought it sounded just like that. I looked outside but I couldn't see any fighter planes."

"The noise I heard was long - like 8 seconds - as if the plane was going more slowly than a military plane speed. There was another long noise about 30 seconds later."

No survivors are expected in the crash of the plane that was traveling from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, Germany.

Polizzi said it would be difficult to get to the site of the crash. "The mountain is snowy and very hostile."

UPDATE: France's president says no survivors are likely.

France's Interior Ministry says the plane did send a distress signal before the crash.

Officials say debris from the crash has been spotted, but the search could be difficult because it plane went down in a remote area.

A German passenger plane crashes in France. German air traffic control has confirmed that a Germanwings A320 traveling from Barcelona to Dusseldorf had gone down.

Officials say the flight was carrying 142 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew members.